London makes progress on waste

London— Moves to cut waste, increase recycling, and reduce landfill are continuing to deliver results, according to the latest figures.

The provisional municipal waste statistics show that the efforts of local authorities and householders are paying off.

Municipal waste includes household waste and recycling, as well as waste from parks, public gardens, beaches, civic amenity sites and clearance of fly tips. The latest findings, which cover the period from October to December last year, include:

• Household waste has gone down - from 25.8m to 25.6m tons;
• Less waste has gone to landfill - down from 16.9 to 15.8m tons;
• Recycled household waste is up - now at 33.9 percent; and
• Municipal waste is down overall - from 29.1m to 28.8m tons.

Final figures will be available as part of the annual National Statistics to be released in November 2008.